Vatican City
The smallest country in the world offers the heart of Catholicism and among the
world's finest art collections, including the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael
Rooms (ceiling pictured). Go to Vatican City!

Austria
Belvedere Palace (pictured) is just one of many palaces found in Vienna. The capital
is a good start to Austria, which also features the Alps, the Lakes District, and
incredible history & food. Go Now!

Ukraine
Ukrainian culture is based on village life, particularly that found in the Carpathian
Mountains (pictured). Begin Your Journey!

History of Georgia

Georgia's early history is intertwined with iconic history,
although many historians debate the accuracy of this history and call much of it
fiction. None-the-less, the history has been intertwined with truth and today the
truth doesn't seem as important as what the people believe to be true.

The Georgian people are descended from Noah's (as in
Noah's Ark) great great grandson, Kartlos. Later in their history, the land
became well known as a rich land and was home to the Golden Fleece from the stories
of Jason and the Argonauts (Golden Fleece) from Greek "mythology."

Moving to unquestionable fact, Georgia's modern history
began much earlier than most modern countries. Their language and ethnicity are
extraordinarily unique and date to about the 300s, about the same time that they
officially adopted Christianity, the second country in the world to do so. Although
being briefly divided between Persian and Byzantium control, Georgia is very mountainous
and in about 500 they again became independent. This back and forth struggle continued
for a few centuries, but Georgia typically remained independent until the
Mongols arrived in the 1200s. This event latter allowed other invasions,
creating a long period of brief takeovers until the 1700s and 1800s when the
Russians took the country over.

During the 1800s Georgia received many of the same changes
Russia was experiencing, including introductions from the
industrial revolution, including improved infrastructure and increasing personal
freedoms. Despite the Russian, and various other occupiers, Georgia's language
and culture remained and some sub-ethnicities in the mountains were wholly unaffected
by these outsiders since they were too isolated to ever even contact these foreign
rulers.

After a couple years of independence starting in 1918, the collapsing
Russian government's successor, the Soviet Union invaded
Georgia and took over the country for the duration of their rule. The
Georgians suffered particular hardships during this period since the second Soviet
leader, Josef Stalin was an ethnic Georgian and he wanted to "revolutionize"
his people, so did much to install Soviet culture in place of Georgian culture and
history.

In 1991 Georgia gained independence as the Soviet Union
collapsed. Unfortunately, Georgia had little order, was corrupt, and much of the
country was too rural and mountainous to control. This led to a period of independence
movements from South Ossetia and Abkhazia as other parts of the country were rife
with street fighting, looting, political corruption, and the country became known
as the kidnapping capital of the world.

After protests in 2003, political power shifted, major reforms were made, and internal
safety and international politics vastly improved. However, few locals saw improved
living standards or increasing wages. Plus, this new government, seeking to join
NATO, had upset Russia and those relations were further damaged
in 2006 when Russia closed their international borders with Georgia.
Relations further deteriorated in 2008 when Russia "invaded" South Ossetia
"to protect the Russian minority" there.